95 reviews of Toledo Half-Day or Full-Day Trip from Madrid

Toledo was a great city to visit. Our guide, however, smoked like a fish, acted totally disinterested and did not translate everything into English and concentrated on talking to people in Spanish.

Sadly, the tour operator gave very poor service. The guides were in a bad mood and explained things in a foolish way.

Although the city is spectacular, the staff at the tour company was impatient. They should have a warning that the tours entail a lot of walking and are not fit for persons with an inability to go up and down hills and in cobble stones. As of today, I could not honestly recommend this tour!

The tour wasn't too bad. All the footwork was done before lunch, and then we had a tour in the coach and a stop at a gift shop that sells silver products. The guide didn't translate everything into English, and the Spanish tourists had an irritating habit of talking loudly during the translation.

The lunch was by far the worst part: don't do it! The food was dreadful, and there were no options, either; you get what you're given, and drinks are not included. The food was horrible - stale bread, a bean soup followed by a vile greasy chicken and soggy, inedible chips, and a small bowl of tinned fruit salad with odd-tasting ice cream. Several people didn't eat their lunch and preferred to go hungry. The service was slow, and goodness knows what would happen if there was a vegetarian in the group. It was a very disappointing culinary experience.

This was a typical bus tour - move 'em in, move 'em out. The guide was good, speaking in both Spanish and English, but sometimes I didn't know when she was changing from one language to another. The lunch was a waste, as was the stop at the metal-working shop, which was just a tourist trap. I would suggest taking either the half-day trip, or just taking the high-speed train from Madrid and doing your own walking tour.

Our guide was very experienced and well grounded. He handled all questions in a very acceptable fashion. The highlight of the tour was the cathedral in the main plaza. Going into the cathedral would have been a better alternative than some of the other buildings that we visited. At the last stop, our insensitive driver choose to park a substantial distance from the metal fabrication store. This meant that our tour participants had to walk in the rain and through mud, while other tour drivers waited for their passengers closer to the doors of the store, and they remained dry and with clean shoes.

We enjoyed our tour of Toledo very much and are glad we did it. The city is beautiful and shouldn't be missed. However, there are several things that could be done better. 1. The tour guide left a lot to be desired. She was very knowledgeable, but not at all friendly. She distanced herself from the group and was hard to follow in the crowded narrow streets. On the bus, we couldn't hear or understand what she was saying. 2. It would have been helpful if we had known we were looking for a travel agency and it's name for the meeting place rather than a bus station, as we had no idea where we were going, and when we asked people, they did not know of a bus station in that area. 3. The stop to see craftsmen at work making jewelry was a joke. It was more of an opportunity for them to sell to tourists who were taken there for that purpose alone. 4. We would have liked some time on our own to shop in Toledo rather than be taken to an overpriced touristy souvenir shop on the way. 5. There were 8 people in our group on a huge bus. Very wasteful. 6. The food at the restaurant wasn't great, but no worse than most of the other food in Spain. A group of singers came in for a bit which was nice. Overall we liked the tour and would do it again.

The major sites that I wanted to see were not included: the El Greco Museum and the synagogue. I wanted more time to peruse the shops. Maybe more could be accomplished in a full-day tour. It was difficult to have the guide switch between English and Spanish.